Bezos is the first person to cross the $100 billion mark since Bill Gates in 1999, according to Bloomberg. Earlier this year, Bezos overtook Gates as the world’s richest person. Gates, 62, who has a net worth of $86.8 billion according to the Bloomberg index, although Bloomberg indicates he would be worth more than $150 billion if he hadn’t given $700 million Microsoft Corp. shares and $2.9 billion of cash and other assets to charity.

Bezos started Amazon as a well to sell books online, and now Amazon’s stature among investors reflects its growing dominance in the retail world, where it accounts for roughly a third of all e-commerce transactions, and its ambitions to push into other sectors of the economy.

In 2013, Bezos told “60 Minutes” that he believes a reason by Amazon’s success is ability to focus on the “long view.”

“The long term approach is rare enough that it means you’re not competing against very many companies,” Bezos said. “‘Cause most companies wanna see a return on investment in, you know, one, two, three years … I’m willing for it to be five, six, seven years. So just that change in timeline can be a very big competitive advantage.”